Definition of Fever, epidemic hemorrhagic

Fever, epidemic hemorrhagic: A
number of diseases characterized by an abrupt onset of high
fever and chills, headache, cold and cough, and pain in the
muscles, joints and abdomen with nausea and vomiting
followed by bleeding into the kidney and elsewhere. Known
also as hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome.

Many arboviruses (including those in the families Togaviridae,
Flaviviridae, Filoviridae, and Bunyaviridae) and the
Hantaviruses, spread by rodents or biting insects, can
cause epidemic hemorrhagic fever. The Ebola virus is a
notorious cause of epidemic hemorrhagic fever.

Bioterrorism -- There has been concern about the hemorrhagic fever as a possible weapon for bioterrorism. However, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the US Congress, in a 1999 report considered hemorrhagic fever to be an "unlikely" biologic threat for terrorism, because these viruses are very difficult to obtain and process, unsafe to handle, and relatively unstable. The lethal effects of these viruses were deemed by the GAO to depend on the strain but can be "very high."